Back-to-school resources
Lessons for the new school year including plans for icebreakers, business basics, and absolute beginners.
On this page, you’ll find a wealth of theoretical and practical resources designed to help ease you into the new school year and make the most of the back-to-school weeks. Whether you need to break the ice with your new groups, find ideas for the first classes or simply get some inspiration, we’ve got all you need to give you a stress-free start!
Skills-based resources
Absolute Beginners
This section contains a series of twenty step-by-step ESOL lesson plans by Frances Marnie designed for beginner-level students with little or no knowledge of English.
Business Basics
A series of lesson plans focusing on functional and situational English designed to help elementary-level students get started learning Business Basics.
First lessons: Lesson plans
A set of lesson plans and worksheets for use in first lessons in business English.
Teenagers
Impressions: Friends
Students discuss what qualities are important in a friend and do a questionnaire about friendship.
Impressions: First impressions
In this lesson, students will describe their first impressions of people and what they notice about appearance and personality.
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Let's get personal
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What's your name?
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Beyond: Knowledge: Learning
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Beyond: Arts and Media: Literary lives
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A Time to Travel
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Owl Hall: Episode 1: Arrival
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Spot on news lessons for teens: No girls, no boys!
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Spot on news lessons for teens: One school, 71 languages
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Spot on news lessons for teens: School of hope
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Video projects
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Teenagers: Warmers
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One World Magazine project
Methodology, tips and stories
Approaching a first class with a new group
Melissa Martin's article offers tips on how to approach teaching a first lesson with a new group.
Blended Learning
In these articles, Daniel Barber takes a closer look at Blended Learning and what it means and offers tips and ideas for using this approach in your classroom.
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Challenges in ELT
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Digital criteria
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First classes
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First day teaching stories
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First day: first classes with young learners
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First day: first lesson games
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First steps into ... Flipped Learning
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General: First lessons: Name games
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General: the first lesson of the year
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Methodology: Survival Guide: The emergency activity file
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Survival Guide: Culture shock
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Survival Guide: Surviving teaching in companies
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Survival Guide: Surviving technology
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Survival Guide: Surviving young learners
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Survival Guide: Troubleshooting
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Teacher's survival kit
Children
First day
Lindsay Clandfield provides six tried and tested speaking activities perfect for your first day with a new class.
Onestop Phonics: The Letter Aa
The first podcast in the Onestop Phonics series for young learners focuses on the letter A. For a complete lesson plan with student worksheets and character flashcard, please go to http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectionType=listsummary&catid=59961.
